BASEBALL / Monkeys defeat Brothers at Taipei Dome to open CPBL's 37th season

Taipei, March 28 (CNA) The 2026 edition of Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) season opened with the Rakuten Monkeys winning 3-2 against the CTBC Brothers at the Taipei Dome on Saturday.

The game was a repeat of last year's Taiwan Series, where the Monkeys outlasted the Brothers 9-7 in Game 5 in Taichung to capture the championship.

That title marked the Monkeys' eighth CPBL championship and the first since Rakuten took over the team in 2020. It was also only the second time in league history that a challenger defeated a half-season champion.

Currently, 360 games have been scheduled to take place across Taiwan's 11 baseball stadiums, with each of Taiwan's six teams in the CPBL to participate in 120 games at least, split between 60 home and 60 away games.

The Tainan Asia-Pacific International Baseball Stadiums and Training Centers have been inducted this year to replace the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium as Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions' home base.

Additionally, Taipei Dome had initially been scheduled to host 52 games for the CPBL in 2025 before adding 14 more days for the second half of the league's 36th season to house a total of 66 matches.

Currently, the Taipei Dome has planned to host 58 games for the 2026 season, with the Saturday Monkeys-Brothers match being the opener.